<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>touch the ground by plutosrose</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157125">touch the ground</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose'>plutosrose</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>lightning only struck once [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dead Aang (Avatar), F/M, Missing Scene, implied PTSD, references to death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 04:14:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,281</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25157125</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/plutosrose/pseuds/plutosrose</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>“Do you want to talk about it?”</p><p>This was one of the interesting things about Zuko. Since he’d joined them, he’d become almost desperate to be supportive and kind. He wasn’t kind and supportive in the same near perfect, near effortless way that Aang was. He worked at it, every second of every day.</p><p>His feet touched the ground.</p><p>--</p><p>Before the invasion, Zuko tries to comfort Katara.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Mild Katara/Aang</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>lightning only struck once [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1811392</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>touch the ground</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the second part of lightning only struck once. While it can be read by itself, it will likely make more sense if it's read second.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I don’t want to go and train with the Guru.”</p><p>Aang’s voice is so small and so quiet that for a moment, Katara is fairly certain that she’s dreaming. </p><p>“What are you talking about?” she asks, keeping her voice to a whisper, even though there wasn’t much of a need. Sokka and Toph could sleep through practically anything. </p><p>Aang fidgets nervously under the covers. </p><p>“Aang,” she says gently. “You know you can tell me anything.” </p><p>In that moment, Aang is thankful that it’s dark in their room, because the last thing that he wants in that moment is for Katara to see how red his face is.</p><p>“It’s just stuff. Avatar stuff.”</p><p>Katara purses her lips. “Being able to talk about anything includes Avatar stuff. Even if I don’t really know what you’re going through.” How could she? She might have stuck by Aang every minute since he’d come out of the ice, but that didn’t mean that she understood the kind of pressure he was under - not just to learn the four elements, but to also be a symbol of hope and peace and the future to everyone that they met on their travels.</p><p>Aang looks up at the ceiling and squeezes his eyes shut.</p><p>“You’re not pretending to be sleeping, are you?”</p><p>“No.”</p><p>Katara hadn’t, admittedly, been expecting him to admit it so quickly.</p><p>“The Avatar State. I’m not sure if I want to learn how to control it.”</p><p>“But wouldn’t controlling it help?”</p><p>“See, it’s stuff. Avatar stuff. I don’t think you’re going to get it, Katara.”</p><p>“That doesn’t mean you can’t still talk about it.”</p><p>Aang scrubs a hand over his face, avoiding looking directly at Katara. </p><p>“When General Fong made me think you were…” He can’t bring himself to say the words. “It was this incredible feeling. It reminded me of what some of the monks would say when someone would reach enlightenment. They’d become air. They wouldn’t have their feet on the ground anymore.” </p><p>Katara’s leaning on her pillows, listening in earnest now.</p><p>“And it felt like that,” Aang continues. “It felt like I’d become air, only it wasn’t this amazing thing like the monks had said it would be. It felt…”</p><p>“Like what?”</p><p>Aang lifts his hand and looks directly at her now. “It felt like I’d died.”</p><p>-</p><p>Katara awoke to the sound of rain pounding against the window in her room. Her and Zuko’s room, really. Since that little visit they’d paid to the Southern Raiders, she’d felt infinitely calmer when she curled up next to him at night. He was warm, and he didn’t seem to mind. </p><p>Sokka and Toph might have given them weird looks at first, but everything had been so upside down since Aang’s death that the fact that she and Zuko were cuddling every night - ugh, she didn’t want to think of it as cuddling, that made it sound so weird - was probably the least weird thing that had happened to them.</p><p>“Couldn’t sleep?” came Zuko’s voice. Katara froze for a moment, and then shook her head. </p><p>“I was thinking about something that Aang said when we were in Ba Sing Se,” she murmured. “About the Avatar State.”</p><p>“Do you want to talk about it?”</p><p>This was one of the interesting things about Zuko. Since he’d joined them, he’d become almost desperate to be supportive and kind. He wasn’t kind and supportive in the same near perfect, near effortless way that Aang was. He worked at it, every second of every day.</p><p>His feet touched the ground.</p><p>“Dream was about half of the conversation we had,” she sighed, turning to face him. When she did, he brushed a strand of hair off of her face, and for a moment, she’s almost angry with him. It feels, bizarrely enough, like she’s just betrayed Aang’s memory.</p><p>“He was going to go and train with this guru. He did, anyway. But before we were all going to go our separate ways, he told me he was afraid. Of the Avatar State.”</p><p>Zuko was silent as she met his eyes. “He said it was this awful feeling, like he wasn’t really alive anymore. When he got like that, that is. He didn’t want to go.”</p><p>“Then what happened?”</p><p>Katara bit her lip.</p><p>“I told him he had to.”</p><p>-</p><p>Softly, so that she wouldn’t wake Toph or Sokka (not that there was much chance of that, anyway), she got out of bed, and went over to Aang.</p><p>She sat on the blankets, before she reached out and pulled Aang against her. “It’s okay to feel scared. It would be weird if you didn’t.”</p><p>“It is?”</p><p>She smiled softly. “Yeah, it’s okay.” </p><p>“I know I have to go. But I don’t want to. I want to stay here with you.”</p><p>There’s too much meaning in those words. Katara shook her head.</p><p>“I can handle things here. I’ll be with the Kyoshi Warriors. If Azula shows up, then she’s not going to stand a chance.” In that moment, she wished that she could crack a joke in the same effortless way that Sokka could.</p><p>“Besides,” she continued. “There are so many people who believe in you. Who know everything that you can do and you’re going to do. You’re hope for them.” </p><p>He was hope for her too, but the words died in her mouth. Aang’s mouth twitched, halfway between a frown and smile. He nodded.</p><p>“Okay, Katara. I’ll go.”</p><p>-</p><p>“You can’t blame yourself.”</p><p>The words were more gentle than she expected them to be. Zuko ran his hand along her side and pulled her back against him.<br/>
“I can,” she murmured. “And I do. I should never have forced him to go and do something he didn’t want to do. And then he came back early - and…”</p><p>She trailed off, because now she was getting too close to holding the boy full of lightning in her arms again. </p><p>“Azula killed him. You didn’t.”</p><p>“I really wish it was that simple for me,” she murmured.</p><p>Zuko inched closer, and carefully pressed a kiss against her forehead. It felt warmer than when he held her at night. He didn’t wait for her to kiss him - something she was thankful for. Instead, he just held her carefully and snuggly against him. </p><p>“It can be hard,” he said softly. “To accept the fact that we’re not in control of everything that happens around us.”</p><p>This was one of those moments, Katara thought, where Zuko adopted a far-away stare and a memory from his Fire Nation past threatened to come to the present. She held her breath, almost relieved when the moment passed.</p><p>“You saw all those people today,” he added, “People who believe in Aang. He hasn’t died. My Uncle would say the fact that people remember him means he’s still alive.”</p><p>It didn’t seem that ridiculous to Katara, but she still wanted to scoff, even if she held onto the belief that Aang really wasn’t going to have died in vain.</p><p>Zuko looked at her so affectionately in that moment it seemed hard to believe that she’d ever hated him. “Let’s get some sleep. The invasion’s tomorrow, and we’re going to have to be prepared for anything.”</p><p>Katara nodded, snuggling into him and closing her eyes.</p><p>It felt as though her eyes had been closed for an eternity, a heavy, sleepy timelessness, when her eyes opened.</p><p>“Zuko,” she murmured. “You didn’t tell me why you were awake.”</p><p>“Because you were,” he whispered into her hair.</p><p>It seemed so sweet, Katara thought, but Toph wasn’t the only person who could tell when someone was lying.</p><p>“We’ll talk about it another time,” she yawned. </p><p>Zuko didn’t sleep that night.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>